Fines, Fees & Borrowing Schedule

The Fines, Fees & Borrowing Schedule may be changed without notice at the discretion of the Library Director.

Borrowing Privileges

Most of materials check out for 3 weeks. This includes books, audiobooks, music cds and DVD sets of 200 minutes or more.

Magazines and DVDs under 200 minutes check out for one week.

Guests are limited to 3 Your Lucky Day (recent popular releases) DVDs per library account.

Adult Book Club Express kits check out for six weeks. Guests are limited to one kit at a time.

Juvenile Book Club Express kits check out for six weeks. Guests are limited to two kits at a time.

Borrowing Limits

Each guest may have up to 99 items checked out at any one time.

Guests may download five songs per week from Freegal. The weeks resets on Sundays at 10 p.m.

The checkout period for Overdrive and 3m materials is set by the guest at the time of checkout for seven, fourteen, or twenty-one days. Twelve titles may be checked out at any given time.

Douglas County residents may download 10 items per month from Hoopla.

Guests may check out unlimited issues of magazines from Zinio.

Request Limit Guests are allowed a maximum of 99 requests at any one time. Overdrive and 3M allow patrons to have 20 holds at a time.

Renewal Limit Library items may be renewed up to 8 times. YLD materials, magazines, Book Club Express Kits, eBooks and Inter-Library Loan items may not be renewed.

Circulation Policy for Our Smaller BranchesItems from our Castle Pines, Lone Tree, Louviers and Roxborough locations do not fill holds for guests at other locations. Our smallest libraries have very limited collections intended primarily for browsing. Guests may place an item from one of those libraries on hold only for pickup at that same location. YLD Items Your Lucky Day items are copies of very popular titles that do not fill holds, but are placed in the libraries for guests to browse. These items are labeled with a green shamrock, are available first-come, first-served and are not renewable. DCL staff will not hold these items and are unable to verify an item is on the shelf.

YLD Movies DCL offers many Your Lucky Day (YLD) copies of DVDs and Blu-rays of popular films for the first two months after release. Guests may place holds on titles as soon as they are in the catalog, but typically requests are not filled during this time as all copies are in the YLD collection. These requests will be fulfilled after the two month period.

Overdue & Fines Guests will be assessed a 10 cent daily fine for each overdue item with the following exceptions:

The Library offers a grace period for most material. Items returned or renewed within three days of the due date will not be subject to a fine. Any item going past the grace period date will be assessed a fine from the due date.

There is a $2.00 daily fine for reference materials.

Overdue Interlibrary Loan items cost $1.00 per day with no grace period.

Book Club Express Kits.

$1.00 per day with no grace period.

Missing or damaged books or guides cost $10.00 each. If you return a missing item within one year from the original pickup date, $5.00 will be waived or refunded.

Lost or damaged kits will incur a $140.00 charge.

If a guest accumulates a total of $20 or more in fines and fees, the guest may not check out any library materials until the fine is paid down. If the total exceeds $50, the account may be referred to a collection agency.

Guest Overdue Notification and Debt Collection Timeline

Number of dayspast due date:

Action:

12

DCL sends first overdue notice to guest via email or phone.

24

DCL sends second overdue notice to guest via email or phone.

36

Final notice sent by email or U. S. mail, saying guest will be charged for item(s) not returned.

48-69

On day 48, DCL puts replacement charge(s) on guest account.

If account goes over $50:1

"Billing Notice" is placed on guest account.

Guest will receive an email or letter indicating that balance must be paid or the account will be sent to collections2 for action. Guest has 21 days to respond once communication is sent out.

"Billing Notice" is posted on the account each time an email or letter is sent.

Collection agency sends guest a letter as soon as they receive guest account, usually the same day. Guest has three weeks to respond.

Note: Collections is an intermediate step before the account is sent to a national consumer reporting agency. Local collection efforts do not affect guest credit rating.

Three weeks later

If no response, collection agency sends guest a second letter.

If guest returns materials or makes a partial payment, agency sends another letter encouraging guest to resolve the remaining balance.

Two weeks later

If guest still owes the library money, collection agency calls the guest at home.

Four weeks later

Collection agency sends guest a final letter noting amount due.

Two weeks later

If guest fails to resolve account at this point, collection agency moves guest to Secondary Placement. This involves extensive research to find guest who may have moved. Once agency locates guest , it sends a final letter informing guest that if he does not resolve the matter, he will be credit reported.

Two weeks after the final letter is sent

If the account is still unresolved, collection agency calls guest at home informing him that he is scheduled to be credit reported if he does not contact DCL to work out a solution. Agency then sends another letter (agency may make up to three more calls to resolve the matter).

69 days from first notification from DCL and 120 days after sending to collections (189 days total).

Guest is credit reported.

1 If guest reports an item as lost and the replacement value of the item is over $50, or if total account fees/fines go over $50, the collection process starts.2 DCL's current collection agency is Unique Management Services, Inc.3 Credit reported if account over $25 after all attempts to contact have been unsuccessful. Account must have a zero balance for 30 days to be removed from collection agency list.

Items Returned to Other Library SystemsThe guest is responsible for the item until it reaches a DCL library. DCL is not responsible for these items.

Library Material ReplacementThe replacement fee for library materials shall be the full retail value of the materials, as recorded in the library database or in Books in Print. DCL does not accept replacement copies or donations in lieu of payment.

Faxing The library sends faxes from the Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Parker, Castle Rock and Roxborough locations. The fee is $1.75 for the first page and $1.00 for each additional page. The library cannot accept incoming faxes and cannot send international faxes.